Strong support for University of London cleaners’ “3 Cosas” campaign

by Natalie Bennett

There was an excellent turnout and a bouyant mood yesterday at a rally for the University of London cleaners who are campaigning for holiday and sick pay and pensions – following their victory last year in winnning the living wage.

Students, academics and fellow workers were backing the cleaners – as were representatives from the University of Sussex occupation, who made the link between privatisation and poor working conditions. Privatisation needs to be resisted, and the fact that organisations can’t wipe their hands of responsibility for workers’ conditions by outsourcing them were highlighted.

I tweeted about my support for the campaign – and one response was “haven’t they already got sick and holiday pay and pensions?” – well exactly!

I spoke briefly at the rally as it marched around Senate House – incidentally as we stopped opposite the Briitish Museum back entrance. Chinese tourists there were taking photos – I don’t know what they made of it all!

You can show your support on Facebook and follow the campaign on Twitter.

And there are lots of excellent pictures from yesterday here and here.

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Camden’s traffic wardens deserve a fair wage

by Natalie Bennett

Defending traffic wardens, speaking up for them, is not always going to be a popular cause, but I’m proud that’s what Camden Green Party has been doing lately, including through letters to the local papers. Yesterday I was pleased to be able to speak at a Unison rally for them at the Town Hall marking the fact that they are now in the middle of a second strike for decent wages.

They’re currently receiving £8.09/hour for a 42.5-hour week – not even the London Living Wage – and certainly not enough for a tough, physical, stressful job in the midst of high-cost central London.

Inevitably, their role has been outsourced (by a Labour council some years ago), and they are employed by NSL (formerly part of NCP), a corporate giant that Unison reports is taking a fee of about £6 for each hour of work from the attendants (remember they’re getting just £8 for the same hour – although their compatriots in Waltham Forest are already getting £10/hour – what the Camden workers are demanding).

The long-term solution is clearly to bring these roles back “in-house” at the council – parking attendants are enforcing our democratically agreed rules for the good of all of us and should be subject to proper democratic oversight – but the contract has three years to run, and until that point, Camden council should be doing everything possible to get their contractor to pay a decent wage.

Here’s a video of what I said yesterday.

More videos from the rally can be found here.

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‘Take A Step’ Walk for Fairtrade

11am-1pm, Saturday 10th March
Starting from the People’s Supermarket, 72-78 Lamb’s Conduit Street, Bloomsbury, WC1N 3LP

To mark Fairtrade Fortnight (27th Feb–11th Mar) there will be a Walk for Fairtrade through the borough of Camden on Saturday 10th March.

The theme of Fairtrade Fortnight is ‘Take a step for Fairtrade’. It can be a simple step, like swapping your tea or coffee at home to Fairtrade, or a bigger step, like hosting your own Fairtrade chocolate tasting party!

There’ll be a yummy Fairtrade Breakfast from 10am at The People’s Supermarket. Then the walk sets off at 11am, arriving at Thorntons Budgens in Belsize Park for a celebratory photo around 1pm.

Organisers ask if you let them know you’re planning to come along: camdenfairtrade@googlemail.com / 07815 771 939

There’s also a Debate:’ Does Fairtrade Really Work’ at 7pm, People’s Supermarket, 72-78 Lambs Conduit St, February 29.

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How can we help our high street businesses?

Cllr Maya de Souza

Some of our high streets are really struggling. Small businesses, which provide valued personalised services, and far more jobs than chain stores and supermarkets – up too six times as many jobs for each pound spent – are disappearing, and many more are just hanging on.

I’ve called for the council to take a long hard look at what it can do to help.

Hopefully the March Culture & Environment Scrutiny Committee will be considering this issue, and I’ll be taking a submission to it. If you have any thoughts about what that should include, please pleave a comment here, or email me directly: Maya.deSouza@camden.gov.uk

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The vulnerable will keep paying for this freeze on council tax

by Cllr Maya de Souza

An article in the Camden New Journal, “Life after meals -on-wheels – a cut the elderly find hard to stomach,” makes it clear that we need a debate as to what can be done to protect important public services in the borough, in order to offer dignity to all.

It is not only these services that are being cut, but a whole host of others – from domestic violence provision to play services. Many will now have to close down, charge, or resort to fundraising (often an expensive and unsuccessful exercise with salaried fundraisers taking a large chunk of the money raised).

It is correct, as Labour say, that the government has cuts its funding to local authorities, which makes up a large part of Camden’s income.

However it is also the case that for about five years now the council tax in Camden has been frozen, and Labour proposes to do so again this year.

This means that the Council’s revenue has fallen in real terms because Council Tax receipts have not increased in line with inflation.

The government this year and last year has offered a £2.5m sweetener not to raise the Council Tax but this is a temporary income, and it means that in the longer run, because of the annual cap on Council Tax rises, the capacity for the Council to raise funds locally has fallen.

For this reason, in Brighton, the Green Party council has sought to increase the council tax by a small percentage (3.5%) so as to reduce the cuts it has to make and protect its ability to fund services in the longer run.

They have been courageous and upfront about this – tax rises are never popular – but in the long run the area will be in a better position to protect its services.

It’s a shame that both Labour and Conservatives in Brighton are seeking to make political capital by objecting to this rise. And to answer the expected Lib-dem retort in advance, we accept Council Tax may not be the fairest tax and should reflect wealth better, but raising this is a small amount is better than cutting public services.

Camden Greens will be asking the Labour administration to consider this option whilst also asking for a crackdown on wasted costs on spendingsuch as badly done repairs and external lights which are on in daylight hours, as its only fair to ask for this rise if all is being done to ensure money is being spent wisely.

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